63 h. ago Weather tracker: Heavy monsoon rain leaves many dead in Pakistan

Low-lying areas of Punjab province hit by significant flooding after rivers overflow their banksThe south-west monsoon continued a deadly streak in Pakistan this week, with torrential rain on Wednesday killing at least 63 people. After beginning life as showers and thunderstorms in north-west India this week, a more organised area of low pressure developed, merging showers into a larger area of heavy rain as they moved into the Pakistani province of Punjab. This rain tracked roughly north across Punjab on Tuesday night and into Wednesday, hitting several major cities including Lahore and the capital, Islamabad. The greatest rainfall was in the city of Chakwal, which recorded 423mm (16.6in), more than double the July average.Rivers overflowed their banks, significantly flooding low-lying areas of Punjab. Though several of the deaths were attributed to drowning, most were the result of building collapses. A number of deaths were reportedly from electrocution. This latest deluge takes ...

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3 d. ago Australia’s selectors took a punt on Sam Konstas as Test opener – and he is left with the debt | Geoff Lemon

There was no firm basis to pick the teenager to begin with, but having done so, his only chance of success was to be backed as though there wasSam Konstas had given up. After his duck in Grenada, he looked devastated. After his duck in Jamaica, resigned. On body language, here was a player expecting to make nothing and expecting to be dropped. After his second shot at batting in the third Test proved futile, his second stint of fielding was one of absence: late to move, throwing one hand at the first dropped catch, snatching at the second, misfielding the run that let West Indies escape the lowest Test score. On the tour that might have been his making, nothing had gone right.You had to feel sorry for him, still 19 years old in a team of ancient dads. He had walked into his Test career full of bravura and left it five matches later with an average of 16. In nine innings since his 60 on debut he has averaged 11. The cockiness must have curdled to embarrassment. This is not to pile on...

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5 d. ago Brian Lara names the best bowler he faced during glittering West Indies career

Lara referenced both Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne when speaking about the toughest bowlers he came up against

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5 d. ago West Indies skittled for 27 as Mitchell Starc breaks Test record in Australia win

Starc takes 400th Test wicket as West Indies narrowly avoid lowest-ever Test total

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5 d. ago Brutal Mitchell Starc spell one to remember amid Australia batters’ tour to forget | Geoff Lemon

The left-arm fast bowler claimed a record-breaking six-wicket haul in the third Test against the West Indies to celebrate his milestone match in styleModern sport reporting casually reaches for words like “brutality” and “carnage” where their usage even as metaphor is overblown. The end of the third Test in Kingston, though, warranted both. Australia’s fast bowlers destroyed West Indies for 27, a single run higher than the lowest innings score in Test history.The batting lasted 14.3 overs, the third-shortest innings on record. Mitchell Starc, curling the pink Dukes ball, took 6 for 9. Scott Boland’s 3 for 2 came in the form of a hat-trick. It was a sporting annihilation, the lowest West Indies total ever by 20 runs, worse than any time during the struggles of their earliest years or their recent decades. Australia swept the series 3-0. Continue reading...

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6 d. ago West Indies bowled out for second lowest score in Test history as records tumble in Australia win

The pace bowler took six for nine as the hosts narrowly avoided an embarrassing new low.

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6 d. ago Cameron Green plays lone hand as Australia batting woes worsen in West Indies

Third Test, day two: Australia 225 and 99-6; West Indies 143 at stumpsNo 3 batter hits 42 not out after Sam Konstas falls for a duckAustralia’s selectors have four Sheffield Shield matches to sort their openers for the Ashes, after the team’s top order crumbled under lights in Jamaica.The tourists went to stumps on night two at Sabina Park at 99-6 in their second innings, leading West Indies by 181 but with the game firmly in the balance. Continue reading...

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7 d. ago Scott Boland strikes on Australia return as West Indies suffer dramatic collapse

Third Test, day two: Australia 225; West Indies 143 at dinnerFast bowler takes three wickets as hosts lose 61 for 7 at Sabina ParkAustralia’s top order are set to face a tough final examination in the West Indies, after the hosts were bowled out for 143 at dinner on day two of the third Test in Jamaica.Scott Boland justified his call up ahead of Nathan Lyon with three wickets, while Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood claimed two each as Australia took an 82-run lead. Continue reading...

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7 d. ago Pressure mounts on Konstas and Khawaja as Australia collapse in third West Indies Test

Third Test, day one: Australia win toss and make 225; West Indies 16-1Australia openers again fail to fire in day-night Test at Sabina ParkIt was a strange way to start. Out of Australia’s last 146 Test matches before taking the field at Sabina Park in Jamaica on Saturday, off spinner Nathan Lyon had missed seven. Four of those were in 2012 and 2013, left out for other configurations of bowlers. Three were after he blew out his calf during the 2023 Ashes. And that was that.Surprisingly, Kingston became the eighth match that Lyon has missed in his 14 years of Tests, and the fifth when fit, after a series in which he has gone for a few sixes but taken nine wickets at 18. Instead Australia opted to include Scott Boland as the fourth fast bowler for a day-night fixture on a surface that they guessed would suit pace. Continue reading...

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7 d. ago Pressure mounts on Konstas and Khawaja as Australia collapse against West Indies

Third Test, day one: Australia win toss and make 225; West Indies 16-1Australia openers again fail to fire in day-night Test at Sabina ParkIt was a strange way to start. Out of Australia’s last 146 Test matches before taking the field at Sabina Park in Jamaica on Saturday, off spinner Nathan Lyon had missed seven. Four of those were in 2012 and 2013, left out for other configurations of bowlers. Three were after he blew out his calf during the 2023 Ashes. And that was that.Surprisingly, Kingston became the eighth match that Lyon has missed in his 14 years of Tests, and the fifth when fit, after a series in which he has gone for a few sixes but taken nine wickets at 18. Instead Australia opted to include Scott Boland as the fourth fast bowler for a day-night fixture on a surface that they guessed would suit pace. Continue reading...

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8 d. ago Death of man in Indiana jail highlights cruelty of solitary confinement: ‘A national disgrace’

Adam Bryant, 29, died on Christmas while confined in a solitary jail cell. Advocates say significant reforms are neededThrough the tinny reception on the jail’s phone lines, 29-year-old Adam Bryant told his mom he didn’t want to die.It was late 2022, and Bryant was incarcerated at Vigo county jail in Terre Haute, Indiana, a city roughly 75 miles west of Indianapolis. Bryant had been arrested for domestic battery on 8 December, and for most of the time between then and the 19 December phone call, he’d been unable to eat without vomiting. He had severe stomach pains, too, which only worsened when he was attacked and beaten. Some of his inmates had heard about his battery charge, and they wanted the ring Bryant was wearing. Continue reading...

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8 d. ago Lord’s was the scenery: art and beauty of West Indies’ historic first win 75 years ago | Barney Ronay

The Victory Test against England has been immortalised in calypso song but is going unremarked during this series “So at Lord’s was the scenery / Bound to go down in history.” Why isn’t Lord’s cricket ground marking the diamond anniversary of the Victory Test? We are now almost 75 years on from West Indies’ deeply resonant first win at motherland HQ, two years after the first Windrush crossing, hats in the air, Rae and Stollmeyer, cricket, lovely cricket, a rush of blood in the dry yonic centre of the great colonial game, all of that.It would be wrong to say Lord’s carries no trace of this occasion. Wander around its fragrant perimeters during the India Test, past the gated lawns, the scrolling bars and food courts, and you might spot an embossed brick in the wall of historical moments, just down from Wangfrott Major taking the inaugural village cup and the opening of the media centre: 1950 West Indies win their first Test at Lord’s. Continue reading...

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1 week ago South Africa captain leaves cricket fans torn after refusing chance to surpass Brian Lara

Cricket fans were left baffled after Wiaan Mulder opted not to chase Brian Lara's record of 400 not out as he declared on 367 against Zimbabwe, with some accused him of "belittling" his opponents

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1 week ago Let legends keep the records – Wiaan Mulder happy not to chase Brian Lara’s 400

Mulder opted to bring an end to his innings 33 runs shy of Lara’s landmark.

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1 week ago Wiaan Mulder declares 33 runs short of Brian Lara's iconic test record

Lara’s long-standing record will continue to reign

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1 week ago Teenage opener Sam Konstas backed by Australia skipper Pat Cummins despite West Indies struggles

The 19-year-old has endured a tricky tour of the Caribbean so far but retains his captain’s backing

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1 week ago Wiann Mulder declares 33 runs short of Brian Lara's iconic test record

Lara’s long-standing record will continue to stand

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1 week ago South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder hits 367 and declares 33 runs short of Lara’s Test record

Stand-in captain hits unbeaten score in ZimbabweBrian Lara hit 400 not out against England in 2004South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder scored an unbeaten 367 against Zimbabwe before the stand-in captain remarkably declared 33 runs shy of Brian Lara’s Test record.In his first match as South Africa captain in place of the injured Keshav Maharaj, all-rounder Mulder reached the stunning total – the highest by a player in his first Test innings as captain – as he arrived at lunch with the team on 626 for five. Continue reading...

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1 week ago South Africa’s Mulder hits 367 and declares 33 runs short of ‘legend’ Lara’s record

Stand-in captain hits unbeaten score in ZimbabweLara keeping record 401 ‘is the way it should be’South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder scored an unbeaten 367 against Zimbabwe before the stand-in captain remarkably declared 33 runs shy of Brian Lara’s Test record.In his first match as South Africa captain in place of the injured Keshav Maharaj, all-rounder Mulder reached the stunning total – the highest by a player in his first Test innings as captain – as he arrived at lunch with the team on 626 for five. Continue reading...

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1 week ago South Africa’s Mulder declares on 367 and says ‘legend’ Lara should keep Test record

Stand-in captain hits unbeaten score in ZimbabweLara keeping record 401 ‘is the way it should be’South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder scored an unbeaten 367 against Zimbabwe before the stand-in captain remarkably declared 33 runs shy of Brian Lara’s Test record.In his first match as South Africa captain in place of the injured Keshav Maharaj, all-rounder Mulder reached the stunning total – the highest by a player in his first Test innings as captain – as he arrived at lunch with the team on 626 for five. Continue reading...

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